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We Need to Talk About Kevin

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 44,006 ratings · 6,524 reviews

The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to co

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Paperback, 400 pages

Published July 3rd 2006 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2003)

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Jul 29, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a little apprehensive as to how I should begin this review: there are so many things to talk about.

First of all, I consider this to be truly a great work of literature, not simply "fiction". As a great writer of my native language said: "The real story is on the unwritten pages"; that is, it is the gaps, the pauses and the undercurrents between the characters (which the reader is forced to complete or imagine) which is the mark of great literature. This is one hundred percent correct as far...more

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Jun 21, 2009 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: parents and those who blame them

Recommended to Jennifer (aka EM) by: Veekee

Shelves: for-diane

This book is just devastating ... and devastatingly good. I've just finished it, and had a little cry on the balcony in the bright sunshine, thinking about my mom and motherhood and blame, self-recrimination, guilt and remorse and parental love and the painfully ambiguous, sometimes tortured complexity of it all.

And that is underselling it.

Suffice for now to say, you might not enjoy this if:

- You believe that a lack of maternal instinct or feeling is a character flaw or a moral failing;
- You com...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Florence MacIntosh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Florence by: Hooked by Title and Cover

Shelves: dark, family, awards, 2012, social-issues, lit-usa, reviewed, favs-current

This book should be sold at the pharmaceutical counter, right next to birth control pills. I can’t think of a better deterrent for unwanted pregnancy. It did a great job of confirming a few truisms, maternal instincts are not a given, some children are just born bad, and the worst mistake a couple can make is to allow a child to divide them. It’s the story of Kevin, a lethal mix of nature and poor nurturing resulting in the child from hell. Yet it’s the character of his mother Eva that I found t...more

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May 23, 2012 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Becky by: Jen

Shelves: 2012, highly-recommended, holocaust-and-atrocities, horror, leg-hump_worthy, nook, political, reviewed, tear-jerkers, to-buy, real-life-bookclub, blog_etb, challenge-1010

I've started this review 6 times now, and each time, I've deleted it because it doesn't quite convey the right thing. I think the problem is that I'm not sure just what that thing is. But one thing I do know is that I love books that make me feel like this... that "I don't know what I need to say but I need to say something, to talk about this with someone because this book won't keep quiet in my mind" feeling.

I guess it's lucky that this was chosen for our latest group read then, because I fil...more I've started this review 6 times now, and each time, I've deleted it because it doesn't quite convey the right thing. I think the problem is that I'm not sure just what that thing is. But one thing I do know is that I love books that make me feel like this... that "I don't know what I need to say but I need to say something, to talk about this with someone because this book won't keep quiet in my mind" feeling.

I guess it's lucky that this was chosen for our latest group read then, because I filibustered there with every jumbled, messy, half-formed thought that my tired-because-I-stayed-up-until-nearly-2am-with-this-book-then-worked-a-full-8-hours mind could think of... Because this book won't keep quiet in my mind. I finished it last night around 1:30am, tears streaming down my face, hurting for everyone and furiously heartbroken over something so unnecessary and so seemingly unavoidable as what was depicted. Then I slept, and I dreamed about this book, with hazy, distant figures without names or faces, but bigger than life aspects.

It's rare that I dream about books. It doesn't matter if I read it up until the minute I drop off; I only dream about a book I'm reading, or have read if it pulled me into its world first. I dream about the books that touch my soul. *cue dramatic music*

This book was just... wow. If I were to nitpick anything, it would be that Eva's pen wandered a tiny bit too much into the outside world. I wanted to see her world, the world of her family, or her lack thereof. It took a little bit to get there, and for a while, there were hints but the narrative meandered along in its own time. But oh my, once it got going, it really got going. I don't think it was just my last minute mad dash to read this the day before my bookclub meeting that helped me to read 75% of this book in one night after work... it was unputdownable. Once I glimpsed this family's world, I couldn't look away.

There is... so much to talk about in this book. And I don't think that I could even attempt to do the topics or themes any justice (as I didn't in my bookclub, not for lack of trying). This is a book that begs to be turned around to the beginning again and immediately re-read. It's like one of those optical illusions. At first, the picture is simple, but then once you see the hidden picture within it, you gain a new appreciation for the whole.

This book was beautifully written, insightful, questioning and heartbreaking. It was nothing at all like I expected, and even guessing the things that I guessed (which turned out to be true), it didn't make the impact any less. This book was so incredible at making me sympathize and empathize with each person's perspective, though we only see these through Eva's brutally honest memory, that it was impossible for me to lay blame anywhere, even though the potential for assigning blame was huge.

This was expertly executed (pun intended), and it is not one that I will forget any time soon. (less)

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Jan 12, 2012 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book scared the living crap out of me. (living crap? Really? Is there another kind? I mean, is it dead when it’s out of you? I’m sorry… not getting it)

I kind of sort of knew the gist of the book. It was a rubbernecker… something to do with a deviant child, national tragedy, bandwagon message but I was not expecting this. It is so well written, so proper in its delivery that it takes awhile to warm up to the protagonist as she writes these letters to her husband post trauma or as she calls i...more

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Mar 16, 2011 Kiersten rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not like this book. Honestly, what was to like about it? The topic is horrifying, the characters are hateful (and not just the characters that commit mass murders) and the writing style is the worst of all.

From the first page I was SO irritated by the writing. I'll bet that the first purchase Ms. Shriver made after finding a publisher for this book was a new thesaurus. I'm positive that hers was absolutely worn out. It was like, "Hi! Let's see how fancy we can sound!" Especially for a boo...more I did not like this book. Honestly, what was to like about it? The topic is horrifying, the characters are hateful (and not just the characters that commit mass murders) and the writing style is the worst of all.

From the first page I was SO irritated by the writing. I'll bet that the first purchase Ms. Shriver made after finding a publisher for this book was a new thesaurus. I'm positive that hers was absolutely worn out. It was like, "Hi! Let's see how fancy we can sound!" Especially for a book that is supposedly made up of letters written to one's estranged husband. The letter format was an especially poorly-chosen literary device. I get that we, the reader, needed background, but did Eva really think that her husband needed to be reminded, among other things, about all the random little details of his childhood? They were his memories, after all. Why did she need to repeat them to him, and in such an arrogant, condescending way? And the lists of other school shootings. Blah. I became extremely tired of reading about those as Eva ticked them off. I felt like I was hearing a lecture or a compilation of NPR news stories.

But speaking of arrogant and condescending, here's another problem that I had with this book. I happen to reject the idea that the parents are 100% responsible for their children's failures or successes. Some children have crappy parents and turn out great, and I've seen the opposite happen as well. However, if any parent could cause a child to go crazy/homicidal, it would be this woman. Hello, being bored=not a good reason to have a child. (Did I really need to say that?) Eva was mean, negative, and overbearing throughout the book. And again, I realize that with the letter format, we are only getting the viewpoint of one, limited, character, but that's not an excuse for making the characters so completely one-dimensional. Kevin was evil, Celia was demure, Franklin was naive, Eva was obnoxious, etc.

Finally, the question of the big reveal. And I actually do have a question about this. It was pretty obvious what was going on, that there was going to be a big reveal, after about page 3 of the book (and I'm not talking about the fact that Kevin killed his classmates. That was not meant to be a secret. It was written in the description on the back of the book). My question is this--was this just poorly written so that what was meant to be a big reveal was, well, not? Or did Shriver make it obvious on purpose, in order to make it more awful to read--we knew what was going to happen, and we didn't want to read it, but we were going to have to and were coming closer to it with each page. I'm going to give Shriver the benefit of the doubt on this one, because if that's what she meant to do, it worked. (less)

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Oct 21, 2007 Courtney Stanton rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: women contemplating having children

The pull-quote on the cover of the edition I read suggests that it's impossible to put this book down. That's almost entirely false. Out of the book's 400 pages, the first 300 were kind of like pulling teeth. Creepy, maternal teeth. The last 100 pages, however, were actually and physically impossible to look away from, and the brisk pace of the climax, after so. many. pages. of buildup, actually created a really wonderful, complete story that was very satisfying and which (god help me) made me c...more The pull-quote on the cover of the edition I read suggests that it's impossible to put this book down. That's almost entirely false. Out of the book's 400 pages, the first 300 were kind of like pulling teeth. Creepy, maternal teeth. The last 100 pages, however, were actually and physically impossible to look away from, and the brisk pace of the climax, after so. many. pages. of buildup, actually created a really wonderful, complete story that was very satisfying and which (god help me) made me cry out of a bizarre sense of *happiness* at the end.

This book is a series of letters (irritating) written from a travel-writer wife (unsympathetic and irritating) to her separated husband (tiresome and, given 20 seconds and a familiarity with Western literature, leading up to an entirely transparent "twist"). These letters start out being about her day-to-day life and a mediation on their slowly decimated marriage (something I really can't relate to), but soon they become All About Kevin. Kevin being their oldest kid, their son, and who recently (in 2000) shot up a bunch of his fellow high-schoolers. It's a post-Columbine book set in pre-911 America, and it's freakishly refreshing to read an entire novel about a national tragedy that neither mentions nor cares about terrorists, threat levels, Iraq, or What's Wrong With America?

Actually, it's vaguely framed around the Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential elections, but that event is used to throw into relief how little political issues matter when your family has been destroyed. For the most part, the narrator (Eva) talks about Kevin, why she decided to have him, what it was like to raise him, and examine the ways in which she failed as a mother and a wife.

It's weirdly inspiring. I mean, she is a bad mom. Not beating-the-kids bad, but neglectful, cold, self-centered...she is, essentially, the kind of woman who could only love a child if that was all she had left. And so in a way, she ends up raising a child who, in a bid for her affection, will take everything else away from her. It's both sick and touching, and a fascinating examination of how we're supposed to move on from tragedy, how life continues no matter how much you wish it didn't.

Kevin himself is perfectly written - both sympathetic and absolutely monstrous. By the time he's 14 and terrorizing his mother behind his father's back, I found myself completely unsurprised by everything as it unfolded. Of course he ended up killing 11 people. Of course he doesn't regret it. Of course. I'm not sure at what point, if any, decent parenting could have saved him, and I like that Lionel Shriver managed to write a lengthy book without answering, or even addressing, that question.

What struck me as the most disturbing thing, in the long run - and what's stuck with me most - is that the only thing that seems to scare the kid, and the only thing that seems to at least begin to make him snap out of his narcissistic power trip, is his impending transfer from juvie to the gen pop of a federal prison. The book never gets into it, but I found it deeply upsetting that the prison system is so horrible, mass murderers are scared of it. I kind of felt as if we're supposed to be happy that Kevin's actually scared, but I mostly was just creeped out that the system itself had managed to create something even worse than Kevin.(less)

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May 16, 2012 Trudi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, audiobook, modern-lit, crime-mystery, heart-of-darkness

It is now abundantly clear to me why this novel is such a popular selection for book clubs the world over -- it is a family saga that features a sordid tragedy, filled with abhorrent, compelling, wretched, titillating detail. It is a book meant to conquer and divide its readers, elicit strong emotion, a take-no-prisoners approach that leaves you anything but detached and unmoved. I can't imagine anyone coming to the end of this ordeal (for it is an ordeal) and not have some opinion, if not a ple...more
It is now abundantly clear to me why this novel is such a popular selection for book clubs the world over -- it is a family saga that features a sordid tragedy, filled with abhorrent, compelling, wretched, titillating detail. It is a book meant to conquer and divide its readers, elicit strong emotion, a take-no-prisoners approach that leaves you anything but detached and unmoved. I can't imagine anyone coming to the end of this ordeal (for it is an ordeal) and not have some opinion, if not a plethora of them, on the nature vs. nurture debate and parental culpability in a child's deviant behavior.

The power of the book is not in its brilliance or originality (because it can claim only a trace amount of both) -- its power lies in its subject and the passive-aggressive way in which it is delivered in the first person -- a cloying, nails-on-a-chalkboard supercilious tone surely meant to inflame. Its power is not in the reading, but rather what follows -- the heated, emotional, no-holds-barred tempest of feeling it can only serve to generate at its conclusion. It's an A-bomb type of deal -- right up there with abortion and capital punishment -- and it will make you question the very core of many of your beliefs.

But I didn't enjoy it. It's not a book to savor. Even the prose is overwrought, perfectly capturing Eva's hapless condescension and sense of superiority brimming over in her letters to husband Franklin, as much a part of her character as Kevin's sociopathic tendencies.

And herein lies my biggest problem with the novel -- it seems to me Shriver goes out of her way to present Kevin as a "born psychopath". Over hundreds of pages, the portrait builds, the evidence mounts, layer upon layer, Kevin as The Bad Seed. That I don't have a problem with. I actually fall into the camp who believe sociopaths can most definitely be born -- a true by-product of nature with very little if nothing to do with nurture.

I first thought Shriver was taking the easy way out to explain Kevin's mass murder as the product of a truly evil, unstoppable, beyond redemption monster. Real life is usually much more complicated and contradicting than that. Then I began to see the real horror for what it was -- an unlovable child, who could not feel love, who could not feel much of anything really and the deep-seated terror and repulsion that would accompany that realization, to recognize this thing in your midst that is of your flesh and blood as alien, unknowable, menacing, monstrous.

Then I wondered ... okay ... what came first? Kevin's sociopathy which evidenced itself at birth, or Eva's cold rejection of her son, her unwillingness to embrace him in a mother's love the sure cause for his later descent into darkness? You could even accuse Eva of being an unreliable narrator of the worst sort, painting a portrait of Rosemary's Baby even while she flagellates herself with guilt over her inability to see him as nothing other than Damien-esque, a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Despite any of Eva's shortcomings as a mother and a human being, in the end there was no doubt in my mind that Kevin was not made but born.

The frigid embrace of a hyper-critical, suspicious mother aside, Kevin came out of the womb absent some fundamental building blocks to engage in life and experience empathy. His above-average intelligence became a weapon to better wield cruelties and abuses upon his victims who he saw as no more significant than ants under a magnifying glass. Ironically, the only person he had any semblance of respect for was Eva herself, if only because she was the only person to see past the artifice into Kevin's dark heart. I also think Kevin responded to Eva's sense of superiority as well, that she thought she was better than most appealed to his own arrogance and self-inflated importance.

But then ... (view spoiler)

Whew! I had no idea this review would run on so long, but as I said in the beginning, that is the nature of this book. It pokes and prods and incites; it's provocative and maddening. It is not enjoyable. If you are looking for pleasure, keep looking. (less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I give this one a couple of meager points for addressing the difficult subject I realise I'm supposed to love my own child but actually I don't because frankly he's a weirdo and always with the backchat, if he fell in a cementmixer how much better would my life be, a lot, and would the world be any the worse, no.

Doris Lessing addressed the topic also in her weedy novel The Fifth Child. It's a big taboo, and all that.

For my money though, bypass these poor excuses and go straight to nettyflix or...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Scarlet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: depressing-endings, disturbia, made-me-cry, psycho-freaks, really-good, 5-stars-worthy, it-stays-with-you, best-books-i-read-this-year

---Immediate reaction after reading---

I’m so horrified that I feel sick, and I’m nearly crying, not because of Kevin but for Kevin, and I don’t know who to blame anymore, or what to feel, or what to think. I only know that this book is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and in all likelihood, will ever read.

How can I so deeply love a book that is this agonisingly ugly??

---Full review---

I knew before I started that reading this was going to be hard. We Need to Talk about Kevin is listed as one of th...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Nicola rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, overhyped, made-into-movie

I don't even know where to start with this one. The book was basically a whole load of nothing. It's the absolute definition of ''trying too hard.'' I don't care how many big words Shriver knows the meaning of. Throwing them in so often only made for muddled, disjointed, boring to read sentences.

There's no story. We know from the beginning that Kevin has shot a bunch of students dead, and then Eva goes on to tell random, often exaggerated stories from his childhood leading up to the shooting.

T...more

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Nov 30, 2007 Lain rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's hard to review this book when I am so appalled at what it represents. I appreciate the author's attempt to get into the whys and wherefores of teenage mass murderers, but I'm not sure the book deserves the attention it's gotten. While it definitely presents the story behind one such (fictional) criminal, I don't believe that Kevin's story is every school shooter's story.

I think the relationship between mother and son (a son trying desperately to get a reaction from a mother who not only wa...more

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Jun 01, 2008 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book attacked my brain like a virus. The character of Kevin, the teenage murderer whose mom narrates the epistolary novel, was so disturbing and harrowingly well-drawn, that I think it caused some sort of chemical reaction in my brain. He gave me nightmares. I swear whenever I picked up the book gray clouds covered the sun.

In a series of letters to her estranged husband, narrator Eva dissects her family's life, from the decision to have a child to the day her son locked 9 classmates and a t...more

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May 09, 2013 Salymar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-read, favorite

When a child is born, so is a mother. Once a child is held by a mother, it yearns for her caress. Every child longs for a mother’s love. A mother has to give the love and attention a child needs, especially when he/she deserves it the least. A mother’s love will become a foundation for the children as morality shapes their future. Mother’s love is their everyday strength in search of who they really are or what will they become in the near future. A mother’s love, once the child felt that it is...more When a child is born, so is a mother. Once a child is held by a mother, it yearns for her caress. Every child longs for a mother’s love. A mother has to give the love and attention a child needs, especially when he/she deserves it the least. A mother’s love will become a foundation for the children as morality shapes their future. Mother’s love is their everyday strength in search of who they really are or what will they become in the near future. A mother’s love, once the child felt that it is not given will become a source of unwanted and unbeknown violent measures…

When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race.
-- Margaret Sanger

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a thriller, drama and horror novel written by Lionel Shiver in 2003. The book has won the 2005 Orange Prize (a U.K.-based prize for female authors of any country writing in English). And in 2011 the novel was adapted into a film.

This novel is not like many other thriller novels. It is about a fictional school massacre and family drama told through the first-hand point of view of Kevin’s mother, Eva Khachadourian. Furthermore, it is imaginatively printed in a series of letters from Eva to her bizarre husband, Franklin.

For years, Motherhood is a privilege and a great honor to some, but for Eva, Motherhood is synonymous with suffering in servanthood and despair. She even noted ten of the top negative sides of parenthood. She finds it as (1) hassle, (2) less time for making-love with her husband, (3) unwanted social meetings (4) turning her into a cow – waking up at night nursing a baby, in short it is a full-time heavy work, (5) it is unnatural altruism – instead of eating and buying something for your own, you have to selflessly and continuously put your children before yourself, (6) demanding the curtailment of traveling, (7) tortuous boredom, (8) worthless social life, (9)social demotion, (10) paying the piper in double –taxes paid in twice as much. And having children means you have to double-up your hard work in order to sustain a family and then spend time and money to less-than-grateful teenagers. And not for long, Eva thought that one of the downside and the worst case scenario of being a mother or having a son/child is: “It might turn into a MURDERER”. And because of Eva's behavior and perspective of motherhood, her first child/son, Kevin Khachadourian grew up knowing he is unloved and develop relentlessness. He then, demonstrates it through the devilish behavior he shows towards his mother and other people.

The story is told in a letter form where Eva Khachadourian unfolds everything she felt and experienced before and after the massacre occurred. She eventually gives details of how she has no idea to deal with a baby. In these letters, she also details her relationship with her husband well before and leading up to their son's conception. She also admits to a number of events that she tried to keep secret. And then the novel also shows Eva visiting Kevin in prison. In the end, the idea of being a mother sinks in to Eva, along with the realization that a career is not the most important thing in life.

This is a disturbing yet beautiful novel. It belongs to one of the best books ever written in this world. It calls the attention of future parents and it leaves us a mind-boggling question, What happens if you don't love your own child... and will they know it?

NOTE: I didn't intend to read this on mother's day -__- haha!(less)

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Nov 16, 2011 Marzie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, british-lit

I read this book in 2006 when I saw it in a new authors section at B&N I can honestly say that this story has never left my thoughts. First the brilliance of Shriver choosing to write this entirely in the epistolary form. Odd at first yet by the time you are done reading it is hard to imagination any other way this could have been told to the reader. I knew nothing about this book or author when I came across it other than it had some decent reviews and the story sounded interesting. To go i...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Annalisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: language/violence/sexual content

Shelves: literary, issue, psychology, contemporary

This book explores the question of nature vs nurture. If you raise a psychopath was he born that way or did the fact that you never bonded with him turn him into one? I could see so many classic behaviors in the book, relationships I have witnessed, characteristics in people I know, that I chewed on the consequences and effects quite a bit as I read. In the end, I wasn't left with a satisfied feeling, but an empty, frustrated, almost evil one. Welcome to Eva's life.

Here's what I think: the fact...more This book explores the question of nature vs nurture. If you raise a psychopath was he born that way or did the fact that you never bonded with him turn him into one? I could see so many classic behaviors in the book, relationships I have witnessed, characteristics in people I know, that I chewed on the consequences and effects quite a bit as I read. In the end, I wasn't left with a satisfied feeling, but an empty, frustrated, almost evil one. Welcome to Eva's life.

Here's what I think: the fact that Eva never wanted Kevin affected him. I think a child knows that before its born. The boy was brilliant; he had to have known from infancy that his mother's touch was cold and to know that you are unlovable certainly leaves it mark. When the only attention a child receives is negative, they'll manipulate that anger because that strength of passion is the closest thing to love they feel. But that doesn't mean that Kevin would have had a cheery happy disposition if Eva had only showered him with love. I think Kevin was born with a tendency toward the negative and Eva only expounded that. Many of these exasperated parents fall into the wrong patterns when their children push them to the edge. It is not easy to love a difficult, angry child, but to expound the situation with anger and withholdings of love is always the wrong answer. When that infant was placed in Eva's arms and she decide at that moment to play power struggle with him, she set the boundaries for a game she could not win, even if she did. And even when she realized the battle was unwinnable, she still let Kevin set the rules and drive the game instead of relenting and reevaluating the way she dealt with him. She didn't decide she loved Kevin because she was tired or lazy; she gave up the battle because he finally conceded. She won at a horrible price.

I don't think Eva ever realized just how much Kevin loved her. His hatred and desperate attempts to gain her negative attention was a manifestation of that love and her rejection of it. His rejection of his father had less to do with his shallow inane attempts at a relationship and more to do with the realization that those behaviors are what earned Eva's love. Eva shared the same disdain for life and people that Kevin did, but she was the one person who say how he was and truly rejected him for it. It must have seemed so hypocritical to him. I wanted to feel sorry for Eva, but I found her culpable. I'm not sure how much blame I place on Franklin for never listening to her concerns about Kevin and how much I think she dug her own grave. Certainly I felt her frustration and understand what it's like to feel out of sorts by disdainful personalities, but I do not exonerate her or excuse away her self-centeredness either. If Eva had tried, then Franklin would not have defended Kevin so fiercely and met her halfway. The scene where she takes Kevin to dinner and then avoids him because he trashes on her hypocrisy wanted to make me shake her. It was the one scene where I found Kevin lovable (other than when he was sick) and instead of swallowing her pride and using the opening to forge a relationship on his terms, she dismisses him. That's not to say that I could have done much better. There were times when I wanted to slap that boy and devised my own plans for power play. But I think I would have tried to love or at least understand him and experimented with different attempts at a relationship. Going through the motions was never an attempt with Eva. Every child is lovable on some level aren't they?

The writing is awfully pretentious, and it's not even the most pretentious thing about the book. All these books were inspired by Columbine. We all know that. So to write a book about school violence that takes place ten days before Columbine as if Shriver's character was the one who pushed Harris and Klebold over the edge did not sit right with me. Obviously the fictitious event had to take place sometime, but to claim that it affected history embedded in American memory is pretentious. Plus there's supposed to be a twist at the end that I found blatantly obvious from the beginning and sometimes had to reread Eva's passages because they didn't seem congruent with what I knew was coming. It doesn't always quite line up, these long-winded explanations to her husband who experienced them too. It made the writing feel more pretentious.

Shriver also pushes the envelope with her language and violence in a way that I found unnecessary. Obviously there are going to be scenes with Kevin, but the graphic nature of them was at times too much. What I found shocking was more than Shriver's distasteful way of representing the sordid details. I found it so backwards the way Eva excuses away allowing her 5-year-old to watch Braveheart, thinking he's calloused because he's stoic. A lot of Kevin's inappropriate behavior (language, disrespect for sex, disdain for life) were traits he was raised to have. The way Eva feels she is accepting and open for not setting moral boundaries is unfortunately not that uncommon. Those kids from the sixties who rejected their parents' religion and morality don't realize that those guidelines shaped them and to not offer the same universal questions to their children means that they will take their rebellion even further, to a world I can't imagine these hippie kids would embrace. It is these greater moral questions that Shriver through Eva never addresses. The leniency with which many parents raise their children has an adverse affect. They don't feel gratitude for not having restrictions; they take the dismissal of morality for granted to an alarming amount. It is the lack of morality and boundaries that I wish had been shown as just as culpable as the lack of a mother's love.(less)

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Sep 26, 2008 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some readers really don't like this book and I'm not entirely sure why.

Maybe it's because I'm not a mother and I did find it believable that Eva doesn't love her son completely.

Maybe it's because I enjoy the big words that were used in the letters and found it believable that she would write this way.

Maybe I'm a sucker for good endings and this one ended with a bang.

I think the writing was superb and despite it being a hard book to read (the incident with the maps was particularly brutal), it w...more

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Feb 02, 2008 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-hits, darlings

It's official: I'm in love with Lionel Shriver. First of all, she writes novels that should be gimmicky, but are not. In The Post-Birthday World she employs a doubled narrative that splits in two at its heroine's defining moment of choice/will/agency, what have you. In We Have to Talk About Kevin she goes for the epistolary form. But in both cases, the "device" is perfectly matched to the content, like an igloo (form follows function y'all). The meaning of the novel is bound to its form. Secon...more It's official: I'm in love with Lionel Shriver. First of all, she writes novels that should be gimmicky, but are not. In The Post-Birthday World she employs a doubled narrative that splits in two at its heroine's defining moment of choice/will/agency, what have you. In We Have to Talk About Kevin she goes for the epistolary form. But in both cases, the "device" is perfectly matched to the content, like an igloo (form follows function y'all). The meaning of the novel is bound to its form. Second of all, her prose is fucking delicious. Her language endlessly delights me; it is crafty, artful, funny, acute, and heartbreaking. Third, she writes with more nuance than almost any other contemporary writer I've read (that's you, Kazuo Ishiguro) about the nuances and complexities of human psychology, especially in terms of how people relate to/react to each other. Fourth, no easy answers. Lionel Shriver's work is bold and often crushingly sad, because she is brave enough to explore the various unhappinesses of life on earth without offering pat answers as to its causes. Fifth, she writes about women, messy, arrogant, willfull, meek, submissive, brilliant, dim, WOMEN. God, she's so good.

As far as We Need to Talk About Kevin goes, I could not put it down. The premise is straightforward enough: the mother of a Columbine-style teen-aged killer (the titular Kevin) writes a series of letters to her husband in which she attempts to hash out the thorny questions that their son's rampage has raised vis a vis responsibility for his crime. Eva's letters constitute an amazing dissertation on the requirements of motherhood and its attendant mythology (I think I like reading Shriver's work so much in part because I always come away from it feeling more normal about my own gender fueled ambivalencies). The book dares to suggest the possibility that some people are born bad, are, from conception, simply irredeemable. It also doesn't shrink from microscopically dissecting Eva's faults, and by so doing, fingering her as culpable. As to who or what is ultimately to blame for Kevin, suffice it to say Shriver does not provide the reader with a clear answer come novel's end. Instead, she breaks your heart.(less)

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Jul 20, 2007 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: absolutefavs

I don’t know where to start about this book. Disturbing? Terrifying? Sad? Brilliant! I could not put this book down from the minute I started it.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is from Lionel Shriver. I have never read one of her books before but this book was listed on the Staff Selection shelf at my local Chapters. (staff picks at my local Chapters haven't let me down yet) It grabbed me from the first page.

The story is told from a mother whose is trying to come to terms with the school massacre he...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Sam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, psychology

I don't enjoy writing reviews for books I give one or two stars to. My theory is why waste my time writing a review for a book I feel I've already wasted my time reading. With this book however, I thought I should give a short insight into my disappointment.

I wanted to read We Need To Talk About Kevin since last year after I read an article about Lionel Shriver and had heard about the movie version. A couple of weeks ago I read April’s wonderful review on it and was motivated to read this book A...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I do not think I alternately hated and loved a book so much since American Psycho. It is a roller coaster of a novel that doesn't flinch at the uncomfortable aspects of its story. Many reviewers dismiss the characters, especially Kevin and his mother, as unlikable. I think the author successfully portrayed them as real and, if not understandable, at least mirroring portions of our own human frailties and personalities. Kevin is the bigger puzzle and is meant to be. He kills a number of his schoo...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Paola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa, imprescindibili

Dobbiamo parlare di Kevin, si. E io dovrei scrivere di Dobbiamo parlare di Kevin. C'é poco da dire, si può solo leggerlo.
Il libro é perfetto. Il soggetto può piacere o meno, ma tutto è perfettamente accordato, il puzzle, l'enigma viene analizzato pezzo per pezzo e poi ricomposto a formare il disegno sottostante.
La Shriver ha scritto un libro senza una sbavatura, tentennamento, o dispersione tortuosa. Sa cosa voleva scrivere, da dove partire e dove voleva arrivare.
La scrittura é acuminata, l'anal...more Dobbiamo parlare di Kevin, si. E io dovrei scrivere di Dobbiamo parlare di Kevin. C'é poco da dire, si può solo leggerlo.
Il libro é perfetto. Il soggetto può piacere o meno, ma tutto è perfettamente accordato, il puzzle, l'enigma viene analizzato pezzo per pezzo e poi ricomposto a formare il disegno sottostante.
La Shriver ha scritto un libro senza una sbavatura, tentennamento, o dispersione tortuosa. Sa cosa voleva scrivere, da dove partire e dove voleva arrivare.
La scrittura é acuminata, l'analisi psicologica scava a fondo, negli inferni personali dei protagonisti e nelle dinamiche relazionali famigliari.
Vi troviamo anche un'acuta e critica analisi a un certo tipo di società, americana alto borghese, ai mass media che si nutrono e nutrono dei mostri, a una classe di professionisti dell'anima che riescono solo a mettere etichette (depressione post parto) a una serie di sentimenti ed emozioni legati alla maternità che turbano e disturbano, e proprio per questo vengono taciuti e rimossi. (Oh anche dai professionisti stessi).Il romanzo é anche e forse soprattutto, una riflessione sul lato ombra del femminile materno, quel lato che molte donne nemmeno percepiscono, ma spesso lo agiscono (e tutti a stupirsi di come sia possibile che una madre butti il pargoletto dalla finestra o lo anneghi nel bagnetto), che qui invece viene descritto e analizzato in profondità.
Sono rimasta molto colpita dalla scrittura potente della Shriver, scrittura che ti "incorpora" e della quale percepisci, a volte con stupore, quanto sia autentico, probabilmente perché sono contenuti universali, quello che stai leggendo.
Lo scrivo raramente ma: si, assolutamente da leggere.
La rilettura mi ha permesso di apprezzare ancora di più questo romanzo. La prosa della LS é secca, concentrata, acuminata.
Eva la protagonista, la madre, analizza senza nulla risparmiarsi, la sua vita, le sue relazioni e cerca di comprendere l'impossibile.
Il non-detto delle emozioni emerge con nitore e lucidità in compagnia di un dolore e di una sofferenza che non avranno, probabilmente, mai fine.
(less)

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Aug 15, 2008 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's hard to know where to start in evaluating this novel. I would fall asleep reading it, then awaken in the wee hours and turn the light on to resume reading. It's haunting and it is dark, dark, dark. It is told in first person, by Eva, the mother of Kevin, her 15-year-old son who has committed mass murder "a la Columbine" and who is incarcerated. It is told entirely through her letters to her husband, Franklin, two years after the high school massacre. (Yes indeed, a true "epistolary" novel.)...more

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Aug 14, 2008 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just given this book a second reading – its beautifully written, Lionel Shriver’s prose is so elegant, so descriptive, it kind of sucks you in and carries you along, gently journeying towards its ghastly conclusion, through events that become increasingly shocking and raise so many more questions than answers. Maybe that’s why I read it for a second time – looking for the answer to the questions – hoping that if we can explain what went wrong, the final deed will somehow be easier to reconcile....more

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Apr 22, 2008 Jenna Hay rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Leah-- it's worth trying again.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 12, 2008 Jaime rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't really know where to begin here. This book was intriguing, yet very, very disturbing for a number of reasons. Eva, mother to the murdering teenage boy, is brutally honest about her misconceptions of motherhood, her feelings toward her shameless, saucy little boy, and her apparent guilt regarding his murderous rampage. Although I love her candor, I was sometimes repelled by the way in which she talked about her son. Referring to Kevin as "a little shit" as the 18 month old stood defiantly...more I don't really know where to begin here. This book was intriguing, yet very, very disturbing for a number of reasons. Eva, mother to the murdering teenage boy, is brutally honest about her misconceptions of motherhood, her feelings toward her shameless, saucy little boy, and her apparent guilt regarding his murderous rampage. Although I love her candor, I was sometimes repelled by the way in which she talked about her son. Referring to Kevin as "a little shit" as the 18 month old stood defiantly in his crib, forcing herself to make a vow to be nicer to him as a three year old, and having to determinedly think about offering up any kind of affection to the boy is just beyond my comprehension. Clearly, motherhood was not something that came easily to Eva; instead her maternal instincts were cold and contrived. Does that make her responsible for what her son ultimately became? Absolutely not. Although Eva is far from mother of the year, I truly believe that Kevin had something inherently wrong with him. Sure Eva wasn't always warm and fuzzy, but there is no denying that Kevin's actions (from a frighteningly early age) were premeditated, malicious, and calculating. This could not be the sole cause of the environment in which he grew up. Even so, I'd place more of the blame for Kevin's actions and behaviors on his father, Franklin. Although Eva was chilly, Franklin tried too hard to be Kevin's friend and defended him time and again when Kevin was questioned about, well, you name it--tormenting his kindergarten classmates, causing a neighbor's bicycle accident, throwing bricks from a bridge onto a highway, etc. etc. Franklin always saw good in Kevin; at least Eva saw her son for the monster he truly was. With that said, this is definitely a book I would recommend reading. Although I can't say I loved any of the characters (except, perhaps, poor little Celia), they were well developed and remained true throughout the novel. The pacing of the novel was good, allowing the reader to gain just the right amount of insight into Kevin and his family at the appropriate time in the book. What I liked best was that the author led up to a much needed climax with an excruciating ending that I didn't see coming. (less)

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Apr 25, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-pre-2011

I couldn't put this book down. Harrowing it is; disturbing, upsetting, shocking - but brilliant.
It is very hard to identify with the main character; but by doing this, by alienating the reader through unnecessarily complicated language and an ultimately unsympathetic narrator, the author ensures the reader does not automatically take her side in the debate. This makes you start to question her viewpoint rather than just accepting it, opening the book up to the moral debate that is at the heart...more

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Jul 20, 2012 M— rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 02, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: Mum; Gaye

Shelves: 2011, kindle-baby, own, guardian-1000, faves, 2011s-most-enjoyed

It seems I’ve had a staggeringly good run of books lately topped off with this superb novel, which is one of those books that is sure to stick in the memory for quite a long time to come as Shriver imagines the unimaginable – what it's like for the parent of a child who’s committed a truly monstrous act, in this case a school shooting.

Eva Katchadourian chronicles her grief and guilt in the aftermath of her son’s killings, as well as looking back and examining all of the little fears, flaws and i...more

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Jul 28, 2010 jo marked it as not-for-me-now

Recommended to jo by: sharon

Shelves: great-britain

read a few chapters of it. impressive. more later.

***

still at it. it will probably take me a year to read it. english people write difficult language. i wish my sister in law and good friend sharon told me how long it took her to get through a page. it takes me about 4 mins and 23 seconds.

***

i really, really like this book. shriver is an immensely talented writer with fireworky facility with language and a ton of deep and true things to say about our humanity. many of the passages are simply arr...more

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About Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver's novels include the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the 2005 Orange Prize and has now sold over a million copies worldwide. Earlier books include Double Fault, A Perfectly Good Family, and Checker and the Derailleurs. Her novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. Her journalism h...more

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“...You can only subject people to anguish who have a conscience. You can only punish people who have hopes to frustrate or attachments to sever; who worry what you think of them. You can really only punish people who are already a little bit good.” — 108 people liked it

“I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.” — 69 people liked it

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